Gold Fish is a game which might seem like it’s inspired by the creatures of the ocean, but it’s in fact themed around the gold fish and the aquariums which hold them, along with the various other creatures which can be had alongside. While ocean life gets plenty of attention from slot developers, this is the first title I see which uses a simple aquarium for inspiration. The developer that made this choice is called WMS.
With 5 reels and 25 lines, Gold Fish looks like a normal slot machine, and it tries to stick to that area. It does better than average eventually though, as you will see when you get its bonus game to trigger, with the multipliers, free spins and the bonus features it has in store for you. Scatters and wilds are also part of the slot, as is the $30,000 top jackpot.
Features of Gold Fish
The Gold Fish features rely on the wild symbol, on a scatter and the bonus game, which actually gets you about six different types of free spins and smaller bonus games.
The Gold Fish himself was chosen for the big role here, being the wild of the game and the one that you can count on to win big, up to $30,000, or 10,000 coins. When the wild Gold Fish doesn’t manage to create its own combos, it will act as a substitute for others if you’re lucky, taking their place in other paying combinations. The Fish Food scatter can’t be replaced with the wild, but that’s the only one that resists the wild’s powers.
Bonus Game
The bonus game of Gold Fish is the most impressive part, but it needs you to trigger an additional 10 coins in order to get a chance at activating it. It will still need you to land at least three scattered Fish Food symbols. Six types of features can be triggered by it.
The Gold Fish feature involves a choice that you have, and which will determine the number of free spins and the multiplier. Each one brings you a different type of free spins and multipliers. You get 5 to 20 free spins, while multipliers vary from 2x to 10x.
If you get the Purple Fish, you see the fish as he comes in and blows three bubbles which have numbers on them, between 0 and 9. The bubbles are arranged at random and they show you the multiplier which will be used.
With Red Fish, you have to pick a chest, clam or castle, to find out what the prize is. You get fish that come in and kiss the prize next. Up to 10 fishy kisses are placed, and depending on the fish the multipliers applied to the prize vary from 2x to 200x.
Green Fish uses air bubbles, which you choose from to get a prize. 10 to 500 coins are won, and you can also get a Win All message which offers you all the prizes from the bubbles.
The Super scatter spins come from the Blue Fish. Symbols with Gold Fish which appear in any position during the free spins will be used as wilds and will be locked in position for the duration of the feature.
Finally, we have the feature called Fish Food. You get cans which have various types of food for the fish. Your job is to match cans. Get three types of food to match and you get a prize. Four types will double the amount.
Betting options and jackpots
The bets need you to activate the special feature with an extra wager of 10 coins, so you add those to the 25 coins you use for the lines, and you get a 35 coins bet. Coins start at $0.01 and go to $3, so wagers can get up to $105.
Given the 10,000 coins that are offered by the combo of five Gold Fish wilds, you can expect to win up to $30,000 in this game.
Design and symbols
The designers of Gold Fish went for the cute angle, and they did a reasonable job with it. You have various aquarium fish among the symbols, you have turtles, coral, plants and even crabs. They’re all done in an attractive cartoon style. The background image shows you the interior of the water tank, with rays of light coming in from above.
Symbols: Gold Fish (wild, 10,000 coins), Fish Food (scatter), Red & White Fish (1,000 coins), Pink Fish (1,000 coins), Blue Fish (500 coins), Green Fish (200 coins), Turtle (150 coins), Crab (125 coins), Coral (100 coins), Net (100 coins) and Plants (100 coins).
Is It Worth Playing?
Despite the very normal and average choice of theme, the game does wonderfully, offering spectacular features and payouts which are considerably higher than what WMS usually offers.
The Gold Fish slot machine is offered through the WMS platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
